Culture as Power Play: Negotiating Gender, Caste and Social Exclusion in Mahasweta Devi’s Bayen

Abstract

This paper examines Mahasweta Devi’s Bayen through the lens of culture as a mechanism of power, exploring how gender, caste and social exclusion are produced and sustained through culturally sanctioned practices. Drawing on the concept that culture is neither neutral nor autonomous, but shaped by dominant power structures, the study argues that cultural norms function as instruments of social regulation, determining identities, roles and hierarchies within the community. In Bayen, the protagonist Chandidasi’s transformation into a” Bayen” illustrates how patriarchal and caste-based ideologies construct and marginalize individual identity through social designation rather than inherent reality. The paper contends that power operates through cultural discourses that normalize exclusion while presenting it as tradition or collective morality. Institutions such as the family, community and the state reinforce these discourses by legitimizing particular beliefs and religious practices, thereby maintaining existing social hierarchies. At the same time, the text exposes moments of resistance that challenge these structures, revealing the tensions between imposed identity and individual agency. Informed by theories of power and discourse, the study demonstrates that identity is socially constructed through intersecting systems of caste, gender and cultural authority rather than existing as a fixed or natural category. Ultimately, Bayen critiques the cultural politics of exclusion and underscores Mahasweta Devi’s broader concern with exposing the invisible mechanisms through which power governs social life and marginalizes vulnerable communities.